Spanish tip of the month – Polisemia - Polysemy

What is "polisemia"? According to the Real Academia de la Lengua Española, polisemia is "Pluralidad de significados de una palabra o de cualquier signo lingüístico." ("Plurality of meanings of a word or any liguistic sign.")

Or, in other words: Polisemia: una palabra que tiene varios significados. That is: A word with different meanings. So we can talk about polysemic words, or palabras polisémicas. The meaning of a polysemic word depends on the context, on the sentence or situation it is used.

So, as you can see, one word, several meanings. And the only way to know what "are we talking about" is conext.

So, whenever you find a new word and want to know what does it mean, take a look at the dictionary and, depending on the word, you'll find different meanings for that word. If so, you'll be learning a polysemic word.